Process of treating textile materials



Patented May 23, 1939 UNITED, STATES 2,159,113 rnoonss or manure TEXTILE MATERIAL William Whitehead, Cumberland, Md., assignor to Oelanese Corporation ration of Delaware of America, a corpo- No Drawing. Application March 3, 1936, Serial No. 66,871

This invention relates to the treatment of textile materials, such as yarns, filaments, fabrics and the like, and relates more particularly to the treatment of textile materials containing organic I 5 derivatives of cellulose in order to improve their properties of textile materials, such as wearing properties or scroop, or to diminish undesirable properties, such as tendency to slip, ladder, etc.,

in fabrics and the tendency to flufif, hair, etc., in

yarns. I have found that if a fatty acid ester of cyclohexanol, or of a derivative or substitution product of cyclohexanol is incorporated in textile material, particularly one containing cellulose acetate or othei organic derivative of cellulose, such objects are attained.

In accordance with my invention, I incorporate in a textile material, particularly one containing an organic derivative of cellulose, a fatty acid ester-of cyclohexanol, or of a derivative or substitution product of cyclohexanol.

The textile material to be treated in accordance with this invention may be in the form of yarns, filaments, artificial bristles or straw, or it may be woven, knitted or netted fabric containing such yarns, filaments, straw or bris- 35 tles. The textile material treated by this invention preferably containsorg'anic derivatives of cellulose such as organic esters of cellulose and cellulose ethers. Examples of such organic esters of cellulose are cellulose acetate, cellulose for- 40 mate, cellulose propionate and cellulose butyrate,

while examples of cellulose ethers are ethyl celluose, methyl cellulose and benzyl cellulose. However, the textile material may be made of other fibres such as natural silk, reconstituted cellulose, cotton; flax, wool, or it may be a mixed material containing such fibres and filaments or yarns of organic derivatives of cellulose.

While I perfer to use cyclohexanol stearate, other fatty acid esters of cyclohexanol, particularly the higher fatty acid esters, may be employed. Also, the fatty acid esters of derivatives or substitution products of cyclohexanol may be employed. .Examples of suitable materials are cyclohexanol stearate, cyclohexanol palmitate, cyclohexanol ricinoleate, cyclohexanol oleate or the like. Further examples are the stearic acid ester of dimethyLhexahydrophenol, the stearic acid ester of diethyl hexahydrophenol, the stearic acid ester of the monomethyl derivative of cyclohexanol andthe like. For the purpose. 5 of describing this invention and in the appended claim, the term cyclohexanol esters is intended to describe the above class of reagents.

In one form of my invention, the fatty acid ester of cyclohexanol, or of a derivative or sub- 10 stitution product of cyclohexanol, may be applied as a finish to the yarn at the spinning cabinet where it is formed, or while it is in transit to a packaging device, by means of wicks, rolls or other 15 furnishing devices. If desired, yarns may be treated in the form of hanks, the hanks being dipped into a bath of the cyclohexanol ester. The cyclohexanol esters may be applied to the yarn in conjunction with other lubricants, such as olive oil, diethylene glycol, ethyl oxybutyrate, mineral oil,'or mixtures of two or more of these.

In another form of my invention, the cyclohexanol ester may be applied to woven, knitted or netted fabric by dipping, spraying and the like. In carrying out the process of the present 25 invention, the cyclohexanol esters may be applied to the fabrics or other textile materials by any suitable means, but I have found a machine known as a padding mangle to be particularly suitable. This apparatus provides for the pas- 3o sage of the fabric through a strong solution or emulsion of the cyclohexanol ester followed by a passage between rollers where the excess of liquor is' expressed, thus facilitating subsequent rolling up or other manipulative steps. The ap- 35 plication of the cyclohexanol ester to fabric and the like may be at any suitable temperature. I have found, however, that the best results may be achieved by employing warm baths, 1. e. at a temperature of 25 to C. a 40 The cyclohexanol ester may be applied to the yarn or fabric either in concentrated or pure form, or dissolved in a suitable solvent therefor or in the form of an emulsion. For the purpose of treating fabrics, the cyclohexanol ester may 45 be emulsified in aqueous solutions with soaps, such as olive oil soap or triethanolamine oleate and the like, to form emulsions having a concentration between 0.1 to 25% by weight of the cyclohexanol ester. The amount of cyclohexanol ester applied to the textile material may vary between 0.5 to 4%, on the weight of the textile material.

cyclohexanol stearate is a soft, white pasty solid at 25 0. When warmed to 27 0. it is a cloudy liquid, while at 30 C. it is a clear, light yellow liquid. After warming to 30 0., it does not become a solid on cooling to C. but remains liquid until chilled below 20 C. The addition of 5% mineral oil reduces the solidifying point to about 17 C., while 10% mineral oil lowers it to 12 C. For the purpose of treating yarns of organic derivatives of cellulose at the spinning cabinet where they are formed, cyclohexanol stearate, without the addition of mineral oil, may be employed, the solid cyclohexanol stearate first being warmed to C. and allowed to cool down to room temperature. However, from 1 to 10% mineral oil may be added to the cyclohexanol stearate to lower the solidifying point when the temperature at the spinning cabinet is too cool to allow the free flow of the finishing reagent through wicks or other -furnishing devices. In a similar manner the visplied to a yarn of cellulose acetate from 2 to 4%,

based on the weight of the cellulose acetate present, of cyclohexanol stearate at the spinning cabinet, the finish offers good protection against cap spinning abrasion and the resulting yarn does not hair or break in subsequent knitting operations and the like.

Fabrics, when treated in accordance with this invention, or when made from yarns treated in accordance with this invention, have many desirable properties. Such fabrics have greater wearing properties, as much as 25% or more, than untreated fabric as shown by a rubbing test with the Wyzenbeek and Staff precision wear test meter. Such woven fabric has less tendency to slip and such knitted fabric has less tendency to ladder than untreated fabric. Moreover, such fabric does not tend to ravel as readily at cut edges as do untreated fabrics. Another further important advantage of this invention is that fabric containing the cyclohexanol este'r has an enormously increased scroop, which is of importance for taffeta and like woven fabrics where scroop is desired.

A still further advantage of yarns or filaments treated in accordance with this invention is that they may be formed into staple fibres, which staple fibres have an enormously increased scroop over untreated staple fibres, resulting in fabrics of enhanced properties when such fabrics are made from yarns formed from the staple fibres by the woolen or cotton methods of spinning. Staple fibres containing the cyclohexanol ester may be mixed with cotton, wool or like fibres and formed into yarn by the cotton, woolen, worsted or other methods of forming yarns from stable length fibres. In order further to illustrate my invention, bu

without being limited thereto, the following specific examples are given:

Example I A mixture of 95 parts by weight of cyclohexanol stearate is mixed with 5 parts by weight of a light mineral oil and the mixture heated to 30 C. and allowed to cool to room temperature. This finish is applied by the standard cotton wick method to cellulose acetate yam spinning at 250 metres per minute. From 2 to 3%, based on the weight of the cellulose acetate present, of the finish is applied. This finish offers good protection against cap spinning abrasion and the yarn so produced is exceptionally scroopy.

Example 11 10 parts by weight of cyclohexanol is emulsified in parts by weight of water using any suitable emulsifying agent. A fabric consisting of cellulose acetate taffeta fabric is padded with this emulsion in such a manner that there remains upon the fabric from 2 to 3% of cyclohexanol stearate. The taffeta fabric so treated is found to have the desired scroopy hand and improved properties in regard to slipping.

It is to be understood that the foregoing detailed description is given merely by way of illustration and that many variations may be made therein without departing from the spirit of my invention.

Having described my invention, what I desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

In a process for the production of textile materials of improved properties, the step which comprises treating a fabric consisting of yarns of cellulose acetate with an emulsion containing cyclohexanol stearate and water under such conditions that from 2 to 3%, based on the weight of the fabric, of the cyclohexanol stearate is incorporated in the fabric. 

